Following her on Trevor’s motorbike was impractical, and she would notice eventually. Besides, he doubted very much Trevor would let him borrow his pride and joy indefinitely. So he had to think of something else.
He was racking his brain when the idea came to him. Slipping out of bed, he found her rucksack which she’d left on the floor, and fished out her smartphone. Quickly he installed an application which allowed the owner to track the phone via GPS coordinates, a function which was useful for stolen or lost phones and which could be activated by a text message.
Pleased with his own ingenuity, he returned it to her rucksack and climbed back into bed, then pulled her closer, never wanting to let go.
They were woken by a loud hammering on the door. A shaft of bright sunlight had found its way through the railings at street level and cut through the half-closed curtains, almost blinding them. Groggily Jason felt for his clothes which were all over the floor.
‘Jason, are you in there?’ It was Charlie.
‘Coming.’ He grinned at Helen, and she smiled back. The heat rose in his stomach at the memory of what they had done last night.
‘Is Helen in there with you?’ Charlie shouted.
Mouthing ‘what?’, she sent him a wide-eyed look. He shrugged, and she threw on her T-shirt. ‘Yes, I’m here.’
When they were both dressed, Jason opened the door.
‘You didn’t have to get dressed on my account,’ said Charlie. ‘Like I don’t know what you’ve been up too. Sound really travels in this old house.’ She frowned at Helen. ‘There’s a call for you. It’s from the newspaper.’
Chapter Twenty-Four
Helen took the call in the kitchen where Lee was having breakfast.
A clerk at the newspaper gave her the details of the respondent, and she dialled the number. A man with a strong Liverpool accent answered the phone.
‘You responded to my ad in The Gazette,’ she said.
‘Yes, I did. Well, I don’t know what you need to know but I was there. That morning when that woman was knifed in her car. I had the sort of dog you’re asking about.’
Helen swallowed. Lee sent her a curious look while spooning Cornflakes into his mouth. Jason and Charlie stood silently by the sink.
‘What can you tell me?’ Helen asked. ‘What you saw and heard?’
‘Why do you want to know?’ The voice was cautious now.
She hadn’t thought much about it before placing the ad, imagining that she’d probably just ask whatever came into her head, but now she had to consider two things. He might have done it himself, and if he hadn’t, why didn’t he come forward when the original appeal was made? If he’d been in some sort of trouble at the time, he might clam up, and she’d be back to square one.
‘Can I just explain that I’ve nothing do with the police,’ she said. ‘It’s personal for me. The woman who died was my mother.’
A pause. ‘You’re the child in the back seat?’
‘Yes.’
He whistled. A dog barked in the background, and he shushed it. So, still a dog owner, then.
‘Okay, I get you,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we ought to meet, though I don’t know what I can do to help. There’s a pub in Ealing, just down the road from the tube station. You know it?’
‘I’ll find it. Can you make it this evening, say six o’clock?’
‘Yeah, that’d be fine. At six, then.’
‘How will I recognise you?’
He chortled. ‘I’ll be the one with the dog. At the back of the pub.’
‘You can’t go alone!’ said Charlie when she’d explained about placing the ad. ‘I’m going with you, and so is Jase. He can close the stall early, can’t you, Jase?’
‘M-me too,’ said Lee with a mouthful of cereal.
‘It’s a public place. Nothing will happen.’
As if on cue all three of them crossed their arms, and Charlie’s jaw was set in that pigheaded way of hers. A warm feeling spread inside Helen. They really wanted to help.
‘Okay, fine. Whatever. But stay in the background. Don’t let him know you’re with me. There’s a reason he never came forward, and I don’t want to scare him off.’
Just before six, Charlie and Jason went inside the pub, hand in hand like a couple, and Helen felt a short pang of jealousy.
She waited another few minutes, then went inside and looked around. The pub was welcoming, trendy, with a slightly threadbare look about it. Scuffed floorboards, a panelled bar, wooden furniture and gaming machines. With no curtains to soften the echo from all the hard surfaces it was a thrumming, pleasantly noisy place, and ideal for having a conversation you wouldn’t want anyone else listening in on. If this was what the dog owner had in mind, he’d chosen well.